Peggie Hall wrote:
phasmatis wrote:

The evening before the boat sank a large power craft powered at speed
through the Marina and created a very large bow wave, the only
explanation as to the cause that has been offered is that the bow wave
caused the toilet to overflow and created a syphoning effect which in
turn filled the yacht with water.
Anyone heard of this before?



Many times...but it's unlikely that the large wake had anything to do
with it. Head seacocks left open when no one is aboard are the leading
causes of boats sinking in their slips.

His toilet is below the waterline...I'd bet real money that a) he's
never installed a vented loop in the head intake...and b) he never
bothers to close the head intake (nor the discharge either) seacock when
he leaves the boat, foolishly relying on the wet/dry valve in the toilet
to prevent water from overflowing the bowl. Either the valve failed
(very common), or the toilet was left in the wet mode. It only takes a
few hours for enough water to flood the boat via the toilet to sink it.

So when I heard this last week here I realized I am one of the fools who
trusted their wet/dry valve and left the seacock open on the head
intake. I spent the last week trying to reassure myself that the wet/dry
valve has held up for a good year now (since I rebuilt the toilet!), but
I was nervous. So yesterday I finally got to the boat and closed the
seacock. Everything was dry as a bone on board. Just lucky I guess.

But my question is, I don't have a vented loop in the line, a vented
loop would be hardish to install with the layout I have. Should I put
one in or not, assuming I never again leave the seacock open?


--
Stephen

-------

For any proposition there is always some sufficiently narrow
interpretation of its terms, such that it turns out true, and
some sufficiently wide interpretation such that it turns out
false...concept stretching will refute *any* statement, and will
leave no true statement whatsoever.
-- Imre Lakatos